Warning, /documentation/digikam-doc/color_management/printer_profiles.rst is written in an unsupported language. File is not indexed.
0001 .. meta:: 0002 :description: Color Management and Printer Profiles 0003 :keywords: digiKam, documentation, user manual, photo management, open source, free, learn, easy, icc, color, management, profile, printer 0004 0005 .. metadata-placeholder 0006 0007 :authors: - digiKam Team 0008 0009 :license: see Credits and License page for details (https://docs.digikam.org/en/credits_license.html) 0010 0011 .. _printer_profiles: 0012 0013 The Printer Profiles 0014 ==================== 0015 0016 Using Printer Profile 0017 --------------------- 0018 0019 We are now almost ready to print that image. Where to get a printer profile? you already know the answer. You can use the generic profile that comes with your printer. You can purchase a professionally produced profile. Some commercial printing establishments will send you their printer profiles (which won't work with your printer). You can make your own printer profile using `Argyll <http://www.argyllcms.com/>`_, in which case your profile can be tailored to your particular paper, inks, and even image characteristics (if you are printing a series of images with a color palette limited to subdued browns, you don't need a printer profile that tries to make room for saturated cyan and blue). 0020 0021 .. figure:: images/cm_editor_soft_proofing_menu.webp 0022 :alt: 0023 :align: center 0024 0025 digiKam Image Editor Soft-Proofing Menu Entries 0026 0027 In digiKam Image Editor, Soft-Proofing can be configured to render over the canvas a preview of a printing job using your printer color profile. 0028 0029 .. figure:: images/cm_editor_soft_proofing_options.webp 0030 :alt: 0031 :align: center 0032 0033 digiKam Image Editor Soft-Proofing Options 0034 0035 .. _rendering_intents: 0036 0037 The Rendering Intents 0038 --------------------- 0039 0040 **Rendering intent** refers to the way color gamuts are handled when the intended target color space (for example, the monitor or the printer) cannot handle the full gamut of the source color space (for example the working space). 0041 0042 There are four commonly-used rendering intents: 0043 0044 - **Perceptual**, also called **Image or Maintain Full Gamut**. This is generally recommended for photographic images. The color gamut is expanded or compressed when moving between color spaces to maintain consistent overall appearance. Low saturation colors are changed very little. More saturated colors within the gamuts of both spaces may be altered to differentiate them from saturated colors outside the smaller gamut space. Perceptual rendering applies the same gamut compression to all images, even when the image contains no significant out-of-gamut colors. 0045 0046 - **Relative Colorimetric**, also called **Proof or Preserve Identical Color and White Point**. Reproduces in-gamut colors exactly and clips out-of-gamut colors to the nearest reproducible hue. 0047 0048 - **Absolute Colorimetric**, also called **Match or Preserve Identical Colors**. Reproduces in-gamut colors exactly and clips out-of-gamut colors to the nearest reproducible hue, sacrificing saturation and possibly lightness. On tinted papers, whites may be darkened to keep the hue identical to the original. For example, cyan may be added to the white of a cream-colored paper, effectively darkening the image. Rarely of interest to photographers. 0049 0050 - **Saturation**, also called **Graphic or Preserve Saturation**. Maps the saturated primary colors in the source to saturated primary colors in the destination, neglecting differences in hue, saturation, or lightness. For block graphics; rarely of interest to photographers. 0051 0052 **Perceptual** and **Relative colorimetric** rendering are probably the most useful conversion types for digital photography. Each places a different priority on how they render colors within the gamut mismatch region. **Relative colorimetric** maintains a near exact relationship between in gamut colors, even if this clips out of gamut colors. In contrast, **Perceptual** rendering tries to also preserve some relationship between out of gamut colors, even if this results in inaccuracies for in gamut colors. 0053 0054 **Absolute** is similar to relative colorimetric in that it preserves in gamut colors and clips those out of gamut, but they differ in how each handles the white point... Relative colorimetric skews the colors within gamut so that the white point of one space aligns with that of the other, while absolute colorimetric preserves colors exactly (without regard to changing white point). **Saturation** rendering intent tries to preserve saturated colors. 0055 0056 .. figure:: images/cm_rendering_indents.webp 0057 :alt: 0058 :align: center 0059 0060 digiKam Color Management Setup Dialog Page Allows to Customize the Rendering Intents 0061 0062 The usual choice to use Rendering Intent to display contents on monitor is relative colorimetric. We would suggest that you not use absolute colorimetric unless you want very strange results. 0063 0064 .. warning:: 0065 0066 Rendering intents are available when converting from one profile to another depends on the destination profile. Not every profile supports every rendering intent. Problems can occur when you select an unsupported rendering intent is that `Lcms <https://www.littlecms.com/>`_ quietly uses the profile's default rendering intent. 0067 0068 .. _soft_proof: 0069 0070 The Soft Proofing 0071 ----------------- 0072 0073 Soft-proofing will show you the differences to be expected between what you see on your screen and what you will see when you make a print. To soft-proof, you need a profile for your printer (actually, for your printer-paper combination, as the paper used affects the ink colors and the white point). If you don't like the soft-proofed image, you can make changes in your working space, not after converting the image to your printer space. 0074 0075 **Perceptual** intent may or may not give the best results with soft-proof, depending on the respective gamuts of the image and printer/paper combination in question. Usualy, the **Colorimetric** intents give clearer, brighter colors, albeit at the cost of having to carefully re-edit the image to avoid clipping highlights and shadows. **Perceptual** is just an option, not by any means always *the best* option. 0076 0077 **Perceptual** rendering intent is a safe choice because it prevents clipping of shadows and highlights, although possibly at the expense of de-saturating all your colors. So if you don't want to bother doing any soft-proofing, choose the perceptual rendering intent (if you don't want to soft-proof, probably you should also stick with sRGB). 0078 0079 .. figure:: images/cm_printer_soft_proofing.webp 0080 :alt: 0081 :align: center 0082 0083 digiKam Color Management Setup Dialog Page Allows to Customize the Printer and Soft Proofing Color Profile 0084 0085 .. _blackpoint_conpensation: 0086 0087 Black Point Compensation 0088 ------------------------ 0089 0090 **Black point compensation** is a way to make adjustments between the maximum black levels of digital files and the black capabilities of various digital devices, such as a printer. 0091 0092 Black point compensation results depends of the context. Try soft-proofing with black point compensation on. If you like it, use it. Otherwise, don't use it. 0093 0094 .. figure:: images/cm_editor_print_advanced_settings.webp 0095 :alt: 0096 :align: center 0097 0098 digiKam Image Editor Print Feature Allows Using Your Preferred Printer Color Profile and Tune the Black Point Compensation.